FY 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG)

This grant program is authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5) (the 'Recovery Act') and by 42 U.S.C. 3751(a). The stated purposes of the Recovery Act are: to preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery; to assist those most impacted by the recession; to provide investments needed to increase economic efficiency by spurring technological advances in science and health; to invest in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure that will provide long-term economic benefits; and to stabilize state and local government budgets, in order to minimize and avoid reductions in essential services and counterproductive state and local tax increases. The Recovery Act places great emphasis on accountability and transparency in the use of taxpayer dollars. Among other things, it creates a new Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and a new website ' Recovery.gov ' to provide information to the public, including access to detailed information on grants and contracts made with Recovery Act funds.

The JAG Program funded under the Recovery Act is the primary provider of federal criminal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions. Recovery JAG funds support all components of the criminal justice system, from multi-jurisdictional drug and gang task forces to crime prevention and domestic violence programs, courts, corrections, treatment, and justice information sharing initiatives. Recovery JAG funded projects may address crime through the provision of services directly to individuals and/or communities and by improving the effectiveness and efficiency of criminal justice systems, processes, and procedures.

The New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety will use their Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) to support the New Jersey's Safe Streets and Neighborhoods Program focusing on three components to address violent crime: Law Enforcement, Prevention, and Reentry. The Law Enforcement component of the state strategy focuses on support for interagency state, county, and municipal level task forces targeting violent gangs, guns, and narcotics through intelligence-led, data driven information sharing. The Prevention component of the state strategy focuses on evidence-based programs that provide workforce readiness skills, job placement, education and youth development, expanding intervention services offered to gang-involved youth, and evidence-based truancy prevention programs. The Reentry component of the state strategy focuses on reducing recidivism through offering wrap-around social services and workforce readiness skills to adult and juvenile probationers and parolees at discharge and day reporting centers, enhancing discharge planning for juvenile delinquents and offenders with mental health needs, and establishing a pilot program for intervention counselors to address technical parole violators. Deliverables will include statistical comparison of crime rates, arrests, and performance measures demonstrating outcomes. The program will be coordinated through the three statewide Coordinating Councils. These programs will be coordinated with the Recovery Act initiatives to maximize the resources of this critical funding.

NCA/NCF